Running Bear's October 2022 Coffee Shop


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One of the side effects of the FED increasing interest rates, is a migration of investors away from stocks and into bonds. As interest rates rise, the price of bonds go down, which may make the bond a more attractive investment than a stock.

And then there's the whole consumer confidence factor... When consumers get nervous, they tighten their budgets, and as things get worse, people start liquidating investments, which also lowers stock values.
 
Afternoon all, just popping in on my lunch break and its still been a very busy week both here and at home. Willie opened a can of worms though and I had to vent. How is it that the banks are all profiting, corporations are all profiting....yet our savings as mentioned and the stock market is dropping ?
Remember all the things a bank does and gets a fee for.

Credit cards, they get 1 to 3% per credit charge from the vendor of whatever goods you purchased. If you don’t pay the card off every month they get 12-25% finance charges from you, either way the bank makes money. If you still use checks, the bank get a fee from the check printer. Interest on savings at a bank is almost pure profit for the bank as they give the consumer next to nothing in earned interest. If a consumer cannot pay the charges and files bankruptcy and wipes out the debt the bank does too. But not just on the orginal loan amounts or balance but also on interest the bank earned! Then they can total all that up and write it off the books as a loss and get tax breaks from governments in the USA and Canada.
 
Good morning fellow interweb modelers, to quote the late, great Vin Scully “wherever you may be”.
Flo- I’ll take a short stack of Mel’s Keto pancakes, a couple hot Italian sausages & a tall cuppa Joe, PATY.
Curt- my cousin and her animals are fine. Thanks for asking. A lotta wind damage(the feed shed only has the corner posts & foundation left) and the main shed lost part of the roof. As one of my aunts told her, as long as she and the animals are ok, everything else as just stuff(as in, things that can be repaired/replaced).
Remember all the things a bank does and gets a fee for.

Credit cards, they get 1 to 3% per credit charge from the vendor of whatever goods you purchased. If you don’t pay the card off every month they get 12-25% finance charges from you, either way the bank makes money. If you still use checks, the bank get a fee from the check printer. Interest on savings at a bank is almost pure profit for the bank as they give the consumer next to nothing in earned interest. If a consumer cannot pay the charges and files bankruptcy and wipes out the debt the bank does too. But not just on the orginal loan amounts or balance but also on interest the bank earned! Then they can total all that up and write it off the books as a loss and get tax breaks from governments in the USA and Canada.
Tom- people have asked the wife why doesn’t she have Square when she sells her ornaments at farmer’s markets. She doesn’t sell a high enough volume to justify the expense. She already includes the sales tax in the price of the ornaments(5.5%). A service fee to be able to accept credit cards would further eat into her profit margin. As it is, she doesn’t get paid for the time it takes to make the ornaments. She would need to increase her prices by at least 50% to come close to getting paid for her time. I do have a Venmo account, but last Saturday was the first time that we’ve had anyone local pay us digitally.
 
Credit cards...

It is true that a vendor eats somewhere around 2-4% of the sale amount in fees. But the "bank" doesn't get much of that unless they own the credit card gateway or the processing company or the underwriting entity.

B of A, Citi, Wells Fargo, Chase and Barkleys are the largest "bank" credit card processors. Chase also has its own gateway, and is the largest credit card processor in the U.S.

Paypal has it's own credit card processing AND gateway, and is pretty much the leader in "one stop shop" for larger companies wanting to accept credit cards..

Of the smaller gateways, Stripe, Square and many others offer fairly competitive pricing. I think Square is currently at 2.6% plus $0.10 per transaction. My wife uses Square for her Flower Truck hobby/business

Authorize.net is one of the biggest players in credit card processing.
 
Credit cards...

It is true that a vendor eats somewhere around 2-4% of the sale amount in fees. But the "bank" doesn't get much of that unless they own the credit card gateway or the processing company or the underwriting entity.

B of A, Citi, Wells Fargo, Chase and Barkleys are the largest "bank" credit card processors. Chase also has its own gateway, and is the largest credit card processor in the U.S.

Paypal has it's own credit card processing AND gateway, and is pretty much the leader in "one stop shop" for larger companies wanting to accept credit cards..

Of the smaller gateways, Stripe, Square and many others offer fairly competitive pricing. I think Square is currently at 2.6% plus $0.10 per transaction. My wife uses Square for her Flower Truck hobby/business

Authorize.net is one of the biggest players in credit card processing.
In several states that I visited in my recent vacation, 3.5% discounts were offered to persons paying in cash in restaurants. It always stated on the bill that this offset the fee charged by credit card companies which was included in the gross bill.
 
Good Morning All. It's clear here and 59°. It's been great sleeping with the windows open since the vacation return. Still having to turn the A/C on for about two hours every evening, but that's acceptable.

I had a busy day yesterday on several fronts. I spent about an hour cutting and trimming a 6 lb. pork butt into 3/4" cubes to dry marinate overnight in a cumin/oregano/garlic/jalapeno/salt mix. Today it goes into the slow cooker for 6-8 hours to make a batch of Carnitas.
I then ran the dishwasher and washed the bed linens to get the house in order.
Later I drove to Dallas and back to retrieve my wife from the emergency babysitting chore that she's been at since Saturday.
I called the propane delivery company yesterday, hoping to get a delivery later this week. What a surprise to see the man pull in the driveway less than two hours later. Filled the tank to 85% capacity; always leave some air space for expansion. 105 gallons @ $2.75/gal will last for about 20 months, since I only use it for the range/oven. Been using this propane company for 45 years; I get a free calendar every year and they maintain my tank free of charge about every five years. Only one month in the last three years has the price been cheaper.
Speaking of prices, gasoline went from $3.09/gal on Monday to $3.29/gal on Tuesday.
After that, we went to eat at our favorite Italian restaurant.

Thanks to all who liked of commented on the photo essay of some of my various roads; Smudge, Dave (PV), George, Chad, Troy, Gary, James, Tom O, Dave B, Hughie, Curt, Louis, IB Ken, Mikey, Joe, Tom, Patrick, Guy.

I made it out to the train shed late yesterday afternoon and mostly ran a few locals. I think that I have settledd on a structure to go on that vacant corner next to the 7-11 store that I was doing last month. It is an already constructed structure that I removed from downtown Ft Wish when settling on a plan there.
View attachment 153014
The structure is a DPM model known as The Gemini Building. Here is a close up in it's old location.
View attachment 153015
There is an appliance store on the right, and an auto parts store on the left. The door in the center leads to a dance studio on the second floor. The structure right now is in for some rework, as the signs were removed for improvement; the decals disintegrated. It will fit better in it's new location in a small town, than the downtown spot where it was previously located.
I noticed that this kit has been removed from their website, but is still available from internet sellers.

Dave B -

Right now Jay Powell is intentionally crashing the stock market which is not favoring the elites, or any of us commoners who happen to have retirement funds invested in the market.
George - Best of luck with the eye surgery. At least you know what to expect.

Musician Steve Miller is 79 today. I used to see him at anti-war rallies in Lee Park in Dallas during the 60's. ZZTop was also there many times. Saw both a number of times since then.
Everybody have a great day.
I think the government was stupid to encourage people to put their savings in the stock market.

It did create a lot of rich politicians, however.
 
In several states that I visited in my recent vacation, 3.5% discounts were offered to persons paying in cash in restaurants. It always stated on the bill that this offset the fee charged by credit card companies which was included in the gross bill.
I use my checking debit card for just about everything. I'm not sure what the bank makes on that? I almost never use my credit card. I used it for part of my hotel bill in Mytrell Beach just to make my credit rating people happy for a month or two. My union tells me that our pensions are founded by 100% of the stock market. When it's up my union pension lasts that much longer. I think that's how it works being I receive the same amount every month. One of my wife's pensions amounts change every month. I not sure why I'll have to call them some day and find out.
George
 
I use my checking debit card for just about everything. I'm not sure what the bank makes on that? I almost never use my credit card. I used it for part of my hotel bill in Mytrell Beach just to make my credit rating people happy for a month or two. My union tells me that our pensions are founded by 100% of the stock market. When it's up my union pension lasts that much longer. I think that's how it works being I receive the same amount every month. One of my wife's pensions amounts change every month. I not sure why I'll have to call them some day and find out.
George
If that's the case George, you're going to have to work for another 10 years or so, maybe more.
 
Afternoon All,

Started with some chores outside then attached the resistors and extension wires on both sides of the signal bridge. After lunch I drilled the holes for the IR sensors and signal bridge. After mounting the signal bridge I called it quits for the day. Tomorrow I plan on mounting the IR sensors.

Thank you for the photo likes yesterday.

Smudge- The tax man never gives us a break does he? One of my mines I built came with little mine cars and I bought HON3 track but I just couldn't make it work.

Ken D&J- I was just showing where it would go so I wasn't concerned about the wires. Great video.

James- I got the NWSL one many years ago and it has more than paid for itself several times over. I do like the bigger base though.

George- Good luck with the surgery.

TomO- There's a lot of truth in what you say. The outer islands are basically tourist stuff driven, and more of a small town feel at $$$$. Oahu/Honolulu is just another urban area with lots of $$$$ tourist stuff, military and some agriculture (sugar cane and pineapples) thrown in. We were stationed there for 15 years because of me mainly (dual military family), and if I never go there again I won't miss it.

Guy- Nice 1:1 photos.

Chad- Great progress on the house.

Willie- Nice layout scenes.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
I use my checking debit card for just about everything. I'm not sure what the bank makes on that?
Unless you put a PIN in, a debit card swiped and signed for pays the credit card fees and not debit card fee. So it doesn't matter to the store or anyone that you use your debit card vs a credit card if you use it "credit card" style -- swiped/CHIP and no PIN.

I almost never use my credit card. I used it for part of my hotel bill in Mytrell Beach just to make my credit rating people happy for a month or two.

You might want to reconsider your practice. I use credit cards for EVERYTHING. I, of course, track it against our money and pay it off every month. There are two main reasons for this: #1, I get the points and spiffs, and the points send me and the family to Japan every other year (C19 years excepted) for free or greatly discounted. #2, however, is the reason I would re-consider: If your card becomes compromised, the money they are abusing and stealing is YOUR money. Even if your bank backs it up and replaces it for you, which most banks do, that takes time, and you might not even notice for a day or two where YOUR money is gone. That could lead to missed payments, bounced checks, etc. because your money was missing from your checking account that the debit card draws on. If you use a credit card, and it gets mis-used, its the BANKS's money that is being mis-used and abused, not yours. Let them sort it out.

Each time you purchase with your credit card, write the purchase in your check register and subtract it from your balance, and at the end of the billing cycle just total it up and write the check (or pay online) and pay it off. Much safer in this day and age of card-based economy and digital crime.
 
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Credit cards...

It is true that a vendor eats somewhere around 2-4% of the sale amount in fees. But the "bank" doesn't get much of that unless they own the credit card gateway or the processing company or the underwriting entity.

B of A, Citi, Wells Fargo, Chase and Barkleys are the largest "bank" credit card processors. Chase also has its own gateway, and is the largest credit card processor in the U.S.

Paypal has it's own credit card processing AND gateway, and is pretty much the leader in "one stop shop" for larger companies wanting to accept credit cards..

Of the smaller gateways, Stripe, Square and many others offer fairly competitive pricing. I think Square is currently at 2.6% plus $0.10 per transaction. My wife uses Square for her Flower Truck hobby/business

Authorize.net is one of the biggest players in credit card processing.

The biggest processor is, I believe First Data. They have swallowed up a lot of others and almost every credit card account I've had as a merchant, no matter who my "merchant service provider" was, ended up being processed by FIrst Data on the back end.

According to Wikipedia they process 45% of S credit and debit transactions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Data
 
If that's the case George, you're going to have to work for another 10 years or so, maybe more.
Ken I've been retired for 12 years. I have my RR retirement and my local 235 pension to live on. My union annuity of $102 thousand lasted 12 years but the government took 25 thousand of that and I gave my mother $25 thousand because she needed it. Then I spent $35 thousand on my teeth so now I just have the two retirements, but my wife has three so we're good for a while.
George
 
Credit card processing can cost as much as 6%.

Anyone paying 6% for a normal merchant account gets what they deserve. (Unless it is a specific market segment considered risky -- each market segment has its own tiers and fees etc. and I can imagine certain businesses have to pay that much).

As a normal "merchant" (sporting goods) the most I paid was about 3.5% plus a 10 cent swipe fee. Square was charging around 3.5% for card-not-present (online, phone) but had no monthly account fees etc. Their swipe fee was mid 2% (2.5/2.6% or so as JeffH mentioned).
 
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